Meanwhile we are busy with commissions, private and commercial. This year might turn out to be the best one so far since the start of Studio Colrouphobia. Look out for things released later this year, beginning next year.

100 Euro Commissions

Here are two examples of how one of our €100 commissions could look (this offer still runs- Single character, simple background).

That’s it for now.

Tell us about interesting artists and their art!

Should you encounter a great piece of art or artist let us know! We’d love to showcase some more art on our blog. Let us know through the comments, Facebook pageor Twitter Page (don’t forget to hashtag with #dontfeartheclown on Twitter!).

Commissions

Above you can see an example of our €100 commission-offer. For anything outside of those specs, or if you need any information not covered here, go to the bottom of the About page and send us a message through the contact form.

Please note that Studio Colrouphobia will not do any paid commissions based on any IP’s not allowing any reproduction and/or derivative work.

NDA’s and Commercial work have taken a lot of time. As an effect, the blogposts have been on a break.

As a compensation for our absence, and to generate a bit of variety in the illustrations/sketches we produce, David has a special offer that will run until further notice-

One character on a very simple background, or two on no background (see examples below) for €100.

We charge €30 upfront and the rest upon completion.

This is for a digital copy only! (If you want a print of the art, we offer this for an extra €20, which covers the printing and postage, to be paid upon completion).

Road to Jove

So Aaron wrote a little about Road to Jove the other day and we thought we’d do something similar. But where Aaron mainly talked about where this came from in terms of story and script, we would like to share a (tiny) preview of the art that goes into it.

Leading up to the 6th of February, when we launch the roadtojove.com, we will be releasing some more teasers, but for now, here is a crop of one of the panels already created. It’s “the robot” seen from behind.

A crop from the webcomic Road to Jove, by Aaron Dembski-Bowden and David Sondered

Art by David Sondered, Studio Colrouphobia

Working together, directly, with a writer, has been refreshing in many ways. The input is very direct. The exchange of ideas and concepts, visual or in words (Aaron has mad MS Paint skills) are invigorating and is leading us to a very interesting point indeed. It’s coming together rather nicely, in fact.

Shortly the webpage will come up, we’ll let you know where and when, but until then, why not pop by the Facebook page of the Road to Jove? And while you’re at it, here is the Twitter account.

So keep an eye out on those two places, and right here, for more updates about the Road to Jove.

Tell us about interesting artists and their art!

Should you encounter a great piece of art or artist let us know! We’d love to showcase some more art on our blog. Let us know through the comments, Facebook pageor Twitter Page (don’t forget to hashtag with #dontfeartheclown on Twitter!).

Commissions

Take a look in the beginning of this blog-entry! For anything outside of those specs, or if you need any information not covered here, go to the bottom of the About page and send us a message through the contact form.

EDIT:

It has come to our attention that some people really liked the sci-fi example image above.

So until our special offer ends, you will get to download the full image, for the cost of a tweet, FB-share,Google+ mention. Just follow the link below and it will tell you how it works.

You have our permission to use it for personal usage only, meaning that if you want to print it and hang it on your wall, that’s fine.

As predicted, a certain time before Christmas we got swamped with work. On top of this, we also upgraded our company-computer, which in itself was a task that demanded a lot more work and time than we thought.We are looking at starting up the weekly updates again, Wednesdays as mentioned before.

There will be a break for Christmas, so on the 24th there will be no update, but for the rest it’s back to business.

Well, for starters, as many of you know, there are contracts prohibiting too much to be told about illustrations until releases of either product or disclosure. That time has sadly not arrived just yet, but look out for January-February, where atleast one of the projects David has worked on will be rleased. The rest of our projects, whether private or commercial, will see the light during spring and summer next year and a few new ones are coming in right now.

What about ‘style’?

We are writing up the third and last part of this during the last couple of weeks and what is left is making examples and formatting the article into blog-form.

What else is there?

If you have been keen-eyed, you have seen the hints and comments about The Road to Jove by Aaron and David. So let’s just post something about that for this “in-between” post.

Q: Is there a date of release?

A: Yes, but we will tell you more about this the coming weeks. There is a timeschedule, some awesomeness and tidbits that will start popping up. Patience is a virtue. David doesn’t have patience so we’ll see how fast things comes out.

Q: What is this thing anyway?

A: Well, we haven’t said what it is just yet. Not definately, to the public. But if you do the maths… Aaron is anaccomplished writer, David does illustration. Plus the hint that they gave through various updates on Facebook and through the blogs. It equals something…

Q: Can’t you show us more?

A: Sure! Here is something:

When you make something new and exciting, you often need to brainstorm ideas. Creating concepts and agreeing or disagreeing on what should or should not be in there.

In the process that has gone between David and Aaron, there have beenback-and-forth talk about many things. For one thing, the big guy (above, not giving you a name just yet!) has had several looks for his head. Below you will find a couple of examples that Aaron and David went through.

And then there is this, we’re not going to tell you just yet what it is, but it’s just something completely new about the Road to Jove that you haven’t seen just yet:

That’s it for the Road to Jove this time.

Tell us about interesting artists and their art!

Found someone interesting? Let us know! We’d love to showcase some more art on our blog. Let us know through the comments, Facebook page. or Twitter Page (dont forget to hashtag with #dontfeartheclown on Twitter!).

Commissions

If you are interested in private commissions we have three slots open this week.

For more info and contact, go to the bottom of the About page and send us a message through the contact form.

Tell us what you think about todays blogpost. Use the form on the about page (link in sentence just above this) or through our Facebook page. or Twitter Page(hashtagit with #dontfeartheclown) We’d love to see your input!

Style has been talked about by numerous artists, art directors and fans of art on so many occasions that it could be considered to be a done-to-death-topic. Nevertheless we’d like to bring it up in a two-part blog to showcase some of the more interesting styles out there that do not fully fall within the mainstream of western culture. At the end of these two articles (or possibly in a third installment) we will discuss what we can take with us from these different styles and see if we can use it to further our own styles.

This week and some other articles on style

This week we will talk about Western artists and some styles of Western origins. Next week we will bring up some Eastern artists and their styles.

For some interesting articles on Style in general, there are some to be found through Muddy Colors.

When it comes to western styles, these ae the styles that most of the readers of this blog have grown up with. You see it on a daily, or weekly, basis. You have seein it in comicbooks, storybooks, museums, and game-art. These are the ones you all know about, and if we mention just a few well known examples you will immediately have an idea of what they would look like.

The above artists and their styles have already had a huge impact on western styles in general. In some cases, like with Frazzetta and Jones, their respective styles have influenced whole generations, where as the others are inspiring on a grand scale, even if they might not have influenced entire generations. These artists, of course, stand on the shoulders of their own artheroes, whether early 20th century american popular artists like James Montgomery Flaggor N.C. Wyeth, or earlier masters ranging back in time to El Greco and Fra Angelico.

Point in case unique styles

Let us take a moment to mention two artists with unique styles that are worth taking a closer look at.

Mike Mignola has a very distinct style, based mainly on solid fields of colour or shades.

Visible in his Hellboy-series, the most prominent part of the style is how black and white is used to create drama, often the “white” areas are filled with a solid colour (mostly aptly added by Dave Stewart) to create different ammounts of shade. Mignola also uses a very bold sense of shapes. His characters could almost be seen as charicatures with their oversimplyfied traits, more so then most comicbooks. But it is a great style because it conveys a lot of feeling. The bad guys look bad already at first glance. The Good guys (and gals) are very evocative in how they look and the style shows how every persona feel very well just through poses and how they are drawn in any given situation. Mignola have also mastered texturing in this style. Often making extraordinary large beasts look like they where made out of concrete or some sort of stone-material. Esotheric or non-physical beings, beams, or energy is often illustrated in a very solid fascion, but the way Mignola adds texture will tell the viewer that this is something special.

Gerard has a playful style, filled with humour. Where most illustration today is moving towards more realism, Gerard manages to make his illustrations not only have an element of humour but also mintain a very good sense of colour and saturation. Gerard also mixes traditional sketching an painting with digital very effective, often giving his works a very nice textured feeling. To an extent one can see the same playfulness and humour as in the works of Paul Bonner, but where Bonner works exclusively with traditional mediums, Gerard has learnt to take full advantage of both traditional and digital mediums.

When going to see Gerards works, be sure to also take a look at the works of his wife, Annie Stegg Gerard, who is an accomplished artist as well.

So that’s a quick look at some Western Styles that are unique. Do you have any other artists with styles you find unique? Let us know in the comments!

Next Week

Next week we will take a look at some eastern artists, both contemporary and historical, to see if we can use them to help further, and find our own unique style.

If you have any suggestions on artists we should look at please let us know through the comments below, or through our Facebook page. or Twitter Page (dont forget to hashtag with #dontfeartheclown on Twitter!).

Sketch and a WiP

Here is a sketch for the next Primarch and a WiP of the illustration for the Ars Scribendi winner. Next week we hope to be able to show you even further evolutions of these two.

Commissions

If you are interested in private commissions we have three slots open this week.

For more info and contact, go to the bottom of the About page and send us a message through the contact form.

Tell us what you think about todays blogpost. Use the form on the about page (link in sentence just above this) or through our Facebook page. or Twitter Page(hashtagit with #dontfeartheclown) We’d love to see your input!

Hello and welcome to this (delayed) update. As mentioned last week, a lot of deadlines converge on and around the same time, leading to some extra working hours. With as a result this the blog-update was delayed.

Right now, there is nothing of the illustrations that where just completed under deadlines we can how you. These are pending release of the products they where made for or release from the Non Disclosure Agreements they’re under.

The end of all these deadlines does mean that there are some openings in our schedule for more private commissions. See below for more info.

Traveling the Road

So yesterday an image was shared via Aaron, relating to the project he and David are working on. Some of you may have seen it, some may not. We thought we’d share it here also:

No- it’s not going to take forever until it’s out, but we’re not narrowing it down for you just yet.

No- we’re not telling you anymore right now!

Gathering Ideas

Here at Studio Colrouphobia we are always looking to interact with our friends and fans, so we thought we’d ask you what, in the past months, have been the most interesting for you to read here on our blog?

What would you like to see more of? Do you have a favorite topic or post that you think represent what you think you should see more of from us? Last week we shared some websites an articles related to working as an artist, conceptartist, or wanting to commission an artist. In the past we have shared, amongst other things, tutorials, insight in how we work as artists and a studio, interviews with other artists, and just plain posts with art.

This is your chance to let us know what you would like to see more of. Let us know by replying to this blog-post, or through our Facebook page.. Or you can also send us an email through the contact form on the About page.

Commissions

If you are interested in private commissions we have four slots open this week.

For more info and contact, go to the bottom of the About page and send us a message through the contact form.

Tell us what you think about todays blogpost. Use the form on the about page (link in sentence just above this) or through our Facebook page. or Twitter Page(hashtagit with #dontfeartheclown) We’d love to see your input!

This week we’d like to take the time to discuss something that might seem far away, but that you should start thinking about, should you want to use an artist’s services for it.

We’re talking about Christmas.

Yes, it might seem a bit over the top to talk about Christmas and Christmas presents when we just turned our calendar over to September, but to be able to make it the merriest of hollidays, we really need to bring this up.

So you want to give away art for Christmas?

Let’s say you want to surprise someone with a piece of art for their Christmas. There are many ways you can do this, depending on what you want. There are fantastic galleries out there where you can find the right piece for just about anyone. Usually, a gallery-piece will not be that problematic to acquire in time for Christmas.

There are also multiple shops, artists, and other establishments, that carry posters and prints of artwork. If you acquire something like this, we hope you take the time to make sure the right person(s) get paid. Usually an artist will charge less for a better quality poster/print then a counterfeit. Might be worth noting.

So you want to commission an original piece of art for Christmas?

But what we wanted to discuss was the commissioning of an original artpiece, whether painted with brush on canvas, pencil on paper, digital and printed, or other.

For these sort gifts, you need to be out in time. Know your artist. Learn what sort of deadlines he/she works with. Find out if they are specifically busy for Christmas, if they have any special deals that might come up, for hollidays before Christmas maybe even.

Traditional Artists

Alot of artists that work traditionally will have a lot of orders for artwork coming in before Christmas. You need to consider that artists like Dan Dos Santos take about three to six weeks to complete their traditional oilpaintings, and that they might want to dry their paintings for a certain ammount of time before shipping them. If they have a lot of commissions, they might have waitingtimes until November-December already.

Digital Artists

At the other end, where you find artists like Noah Bradley, the digital artists will probably not need such a long time to paint for you, though it varies. The problem for a digital illustrator is rather going to be at the printing-end. The closer you get to Christmas, the longer in advance you will need to contact printers about printing things. Some printers specialize in art-prints, some are multiprinting businesses and will have a lot to do with Christmas cards, brochures an everything Christmassy.

What about Studio Colrouphobia?

So, you might ask yourself, where do we find Studio Colrouphobia in this? Well, we do both traditional and digital. It all depends on what it is you are looking for. So if you are interested in commissioning us for Christmas, you should first figure out what it is you would like to get, then contact us relatively soon, so we can discuss around making sure that your gift becomes the thing it should be- a joy for the person who will receive it.

Eyecandy

For some eyecandy, since we try our best to include something every blogpost, here is a private commission David just finished for a Shadowrun player

-

And how about another small sneak-peek at something from the secret project Aaron and David are working on?

As always, you can find things through social medias, so keep an eye out for updates and sketches on Facebook,Twitter, and Tumblr.

Commissions

If you are interested in private commissions we have two slots open this week. Last week the two last slots with discounts where taken, but keep an eye out for other drives in the future.

For more info and contact, go to the bottom of the About page and send us a message through the contact form.

Tell us what you think about todays blogpost. Use the form on the about page (link in sentence just above this) or through our Facebook page. We’d love to hear your input.